Jokinen bound for Big Apple, say reports

After negotiating a seven-player swap, speculation is rampant that Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter hasn’t finished re-tooling his struggling hockey team. TSN.ca is reporting that the underachieving Jokinen will be officially dealt to the New York Rangers today along with Brandon Prust in exchange for wingers Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins.

Between them, the players rumoured to be heading here have compiled 36 points in 103 games and are a combined minus-27.

Kotalik signed a three-year deal with the Rangers last off-season and is owed $3 million over each of the last two years of the deal. A sizable hit for a habitually erratic return.

And at 31, he hardly fits Sutter’s mantra about getting younger.

Talented, but soft, Kotalik abandoned the Blueshirts earlier this week after being told by the club he would be dealt.

Higgins, who seems to be just more of what the Flames already have, in abundance, up front, sees a one-year deal that pays him $2.25 million run out this summer.

Jokinen is set to become an unrestricted free agent July 1. He earned $5.25 million this season. Sutter said recently he wanted to re-sign the strapping Finn, who he trumpeted as the big, strong centreman the Flames have long been missing when he dealt centre Matthew Lombardi, Prust and Calgary’s first-round pick in 2010 to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Jokinen and a third-rounder.